Community

Uttoxeter volunteers will soon be out on mass to help clear up the streets of the town. The Uttoxeter Spring Clean is set to take place on Saturday 10 March and will help to remove harmful litter that pollutes our town.

There are serious litter issues around Uttoxeter public footpaths and cut-through alleyways throughout the town. To clear this waste from the streets across the whole of East Staffordshire, it costs the Local Authority £970,000 per year.

Plastic bottles are one of the most common forms of litter but it takes at least 450 years before those bottles degrade, in which time they harm wildlife and can cause vermin infestations, all of which is avoidable! The Uttoxeter Spring Clean volunteers are keen to collect as much of this litter as possible dedicating a couple of hours of their time, helping to reduce much of the damaging and unsightly waste.

This local litter pick event is run by environmental not-for-profit The Globe Foundation, who hope it will raise awareness of the damage caused by people’s wasteful actions. Globe and their team will sort through all the collected litter to ensure it is correctly disposed of or recycled in a more environmentally friendly manner.

Volunteer registrations for the litter pick are still being encouraged and the event is open to all ages. Globe’s Event Director, Kate Copeland said

“We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received, with a special thank you to local cleaning contractors IdVerde, Moorland Contract Cleaningand Uttoxeter Racecourse, who have kindly donated the litter picking equipment.

“Hopefully this event, will make an impact on clearing local litter as well as highlight the long term environmental damage littering can cause. Littering is not acceptable and we need to educate people to stop them from doing it.

“This initiative is part of a programme of activity, we will be working closely with community members and groups to help minimise poor waste behaviours, with a particular focus on single use plastics. We can only tackle these issues if everyone is on board and working together.”

The Uttoxeter Spring clean is part of a national initiative, The Great British Spring Clean, a campaign with a simple aim: to bring people across the country together to clear up the litter that blights our towns, villages, countryside and beaches. The national campaign is run by Keep Britain Tidy and aims to inspire 500,000 people to get outdoors, get active and help clear up the rubbish that lies around us.

Join the growing army of Litter Heroes who have had enough of other people’s litter and are willing to do something about it.If you would like to volunteer to make a difference, please register your interest here.